Curriculum

At Lound Academy we pride ourselves on our commitment to providing a rich and diverse curriculum. Children at our school are immersed in relevant and purposeful learning which prepares them for, and helps them to flourish in, a life beyond our school gates. We are determined that every child who attends our school is highly literate and numerate and so we place great emphasis on the development and progression of key skills English and Mathematics. Through a variety of topics, cross-curricular learning and experiences we strive to create emotionally intelligent pupils who are independent, confident, resilient, opinionated, compassionate and tolerant of others.

Curriculum Coverage at Lound Academy

Children at Lound will engage in three main topics throughout the year which will be immersive and weave in all aspects of the curriculum. These may be driven by key questions and concepts in science, history and geography but will also touch on all other subjects in the national curriculum linking back to the main theme of the topic to hold children’s interest and allow them to make links. English and Mathematics are taught as individual subjects but we provide many opportunities for children to develop and apply these skills through the Learning Challenges. Maths at Lound is taught through “Big Maths” more information on this scheme can be found on the website http://www.andrelleducation.com/big-maths/. Finally, we recognize children grasp onto information that is relevant and challenging to them, and it has to be FUN. Our curriculum reflects our children’s interests.

Children work from the programmes of study set out in the new 2014 Key Stage 1 and 2 National Curriculum:

English (incorporating handwriting and SPAG)

Mathematics

Science

Art and Design

Computing

Design and technology

Geography

History

Music

Physical education

MFL – Spanish (KS2 only)

Content of the curriculum for each subject will follow shortly.

Life-Long Learning at Lound Academy

The aims of a Lound Academy education are to enable our pupils to understand the world around them and the talents within them so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens.

In addition to Curriculum Learning Objectives we aspire to provide three key life skills for our children to support them throughout their lives:

• Balancing their own needs against everyone else’s

Whilst we recognize that every individual in our school is unique and has special talents; we place great emphasis on civic responsibility and the need to balance your own desires against the community. Lound pupils understand that they must wait for their turn and that it is their duty to have empathy and respect for everybody in our school.

• Maintained attention

In order to succeed in certain tasks, it is important that we are able to manage our distractions and focus on the job in hand (How many of us cannot resist consulting Wikipedia whilst watching a film or when reading a book?) In a world of distractions, particularly from media and technology, we make a conscious effort to ensure that pupils at Lound Academy are able to appreciate the “here and now” and that they are able to apply themselves to a task and see it through to the end.

• Deferred gratification.

You may have to wait a while to receive the fruits of your labors! Not everything is accessible in an instant and there is often pleasure in the journey as well as the destination. Gratification and pride come hand in hand with hard work and endeavour.

All these core skills take time and effort to discover and understand. We use them in all aspects of learning including playtimes, classroom routines, . Personal responsibility underpins everything in school. Children are given a choice but we make them aware of the consequences.

Our teaching is also steeped in our knowledge of the brain and the optimal states for learning. Lound teachers have a knowledge of how the brain works and learns. You would expect that a mechanic to understand the intricacies of a car engine; likewise you would assume that those in charge of learning and childhood development would have an understanding of the workings of the human brain. We understand that…

• The first part of the brain, the Reptilian part has to be ready for learning. This part of the brain controls our base human needs – comfort, warmth, hunger, sense of security etc. If a child doesn’t feel comfortable an immediate and problematic barrier to learning is put in place.

With this in mind we create comfortable, safe learning environments paying close attention to the sights, sounds and even smells in our classrooms and corridors. Our classes each have names that reflect the qualities we look for. For example the Tiger class has a ferocious appetite for learning and the Monkeys have ingrained curiosity. This builds a strong sense of community and belonging amongst our pupils.

• The second part – the Limbic system controls our emotions. If we add an emotion to learning it becomes memorable and seated in our long term memory.

Through careful planning and our expertise in child development, we strive to create a fun and engaging curriculum. Aside from this we believe that every child is entitled to a special bank of memories garnered through extra-curricular activities, visits and experiences. Examples of this include our overnight camps in Years 2 and 4 and the residential experience that we offer to Year 6 pupils. Annual Conker championships, language days, Family Learning Events, all-weather outdoor learning, sports days and celebratory assemblies are just a few examples of our commitment to providing memorable experiences for every child at our school.

• The top part of the brain – the neo cortex is where the thinking occurs but, this only happens when the Reptilian part is happy.

Once children are comfortable, happy and engaged then we can add a third layer to our learning. The purposeful and challenging curriculum that we provide encourages each child not only to learn a specific skill but to master it. Our staff are particularly skilled in questioning children in order to probe their understanding of tasks. We understand that knowledge is limited unless it runs alongside skills of analysis, evaluation and comprehension.

If you have any questions regarding the curriculum we teach please contact the school directly.

Please see below more information about each curriculum subject and each themed week.